Antiperspirants are generally considered to be essential items of personal hygiene. Reduction in volume of perspiration is desirable to avoid the discomforts associated with perspiration which is not immediately evaporated. In addition to the general and frequently extreme discomfort of excessive perspiration, there may also be problems of undesirable oder and deleterious effect on clothing. Moreover sufficient instances of clinical hyperhydrosis exist for which efficient therapy is sought. Currently there are available antiperspirant products which are effective in reducing perspiration volume by about 25 to 35 percent. These are primarily aluminum salts. However, there has been increasing concern about long-term inhalation hazards of metal salts in general, and the reported ability of aluminum salts to produce lung tumors in animals after prolonged inhalation (Drew et al., "Inhalation Studies With a Glycol Complex of Aluminum-Chloride-Hydroxide," Arch. Environ. Health., 28, 321-326 (1974)) has rendered it desirable to seek non-metallic materials having anhidrotic activity. Moreover, many salts cause weakening of fabric or subsequent deterioration on ironing. Additionally, they may cause discoloration of fabric by acid-sensitive dyes and some may remain on the fabric and discolor the fabric on reaction with detergent.
Although non-metallic compounds have been reported from time to time to have anhidrotic properties, none have appeared to replace the presently available metallic compounds. Thus, for example, formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde have been reported by Gordon et al (J. Invest. Derm. 53(6), 436-439 (1969)) to have anhidrotic properties but are not useful because of strong odor, highly irritating effect on the skin and/or high skin permeability or skin staining. Other aldehydes are not generally known to have similar anhidrotic properties. Gordon et al found that eleven other aldehydes which included glyoxal, a dialdehyde, showed no anhidrotic properties.
It is an object of the present invention to provide compositions and methods for inhibiting perspiration without the inhalation hazards of metal salts. It is particularly an object to provide for such compositions and methods without the use of salts of aluminum. It is further an object of the present invention to provide compositions and methods for inhibiting perspiration by the use of non-metallic compositions which may be applied directly to the skin without having undesirable side effects such as irritation or darkening of the skin. It is still further an object of the present invention to provide for such non-metallic compositions which are without harmful effect on fabrics. These and other objects will become evident from the following specification and claims.